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Abortion (after quickening) is criminalised and carries the death penalty.
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Removal of quickening from the 1803 act.
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Whitehead, a physician at the Manchester Lying-in Hospital, claimed out of 2,000 women questioned, 747 had experienced at least one abortion. Although, Whitehead uses abortion interchangeably with 'miscarriage'. See https://wellcomecollection.org/works/x4yv42ws
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Charles West unknowingly and unintentionally procured an abortion on an undetected foetus while attempting to remove a tumour from Mrs Glover's womb.
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On learning of Charlotte Brontë's death, Gaskell writes to John Greenwood claiming if she had known of Charlotte's illness she "could have induced her,--even though they had all felt angry with me at first,--to do what was absolutely necessary, for her very life". See The Further Letters of Mrs. Gaskell, ed. by J. A. V. Chapple and Arthur Pollard (1997), p. 337.
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Elizabeth Gaskell's biography published two years after Charlotte's death.
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George Eliot's story of unwanted pregnancy and infanticide.
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Sections 58 and 59 criminalised the use of drugs and instruments to procure abortion. This legislation remains active in England and Wales today.
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Armadale is published serially from 1964-66. -
The legislation allowed for the arrest of any woman suspected of being a prostitute. The act also allowed for compulsory examinations for venereal disease.
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Sarah Rachel Russell (or Leverson) first goes on trial for fraud. Sentenced to five years imprisonment.
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Published in eight parts in 1871-72. -
Madame Rachel tried again for five years but dies in prison.
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Rentoul lists the recommended reasons for artificial abortion and the ways in which the operation may be performed. See https://wellcomecollection.org/works/nyp4yyq4 pp. 135-37.
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George Moore's novel first published.
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